Motivation

There's a new gadget just added to my blog. Hoping to keep myself on-track and motivated :). A treadmill walking program I started in October had the added benefit of taking off 8 lbs !

A few weeks ago, I found an APP for counting calories. I downloaded it and found out that based on the data and goals you input, it would track calories, exercise and weightloss. It calculated my calorie count for my weightloss goal and I've managed to be consistent with entering everything I eat and any exercise time. 4 weeks later, as of this morning, I'm down another 9 lbs - Right now, I'm pretty motivated and while he's not giving up any of HIS goodies :-) DH is very supportive of my choices and my attempt at portion control. Surprisingly, some things were unexpected...I don't mind whole wheat bread after all and most measured portions were either just about or much more than my usual amounts so I actually don't feel like I have to eat less at my meals - just keeping an eye on my calorie count overall (and choosing different snacks !) is making all the difference.

My sewing will take some rethinking now. It has gotten warmer here in the last week or so and I've started wearing my skirts. In the last 7 work days I've worn 3 skirts that I've made and they're all too big - one of those was uncomfortable snug and it was LOOSE **happy dance** and yesterday I wore my pants BWOF 04-09-119 you know, the ones I couldn't sit down in after they were made LOL - now...THEY FIT !!!!!



These are my 'walking home' shoes, I wore real shoes at work, promise :-)
I lightened up the pics to show more detail.
I know the hems are even so maybe I'm standing funny - the back shot shows wrinkles in the left leg that weren't there before - at least I don't think they were. The close up of the seam shows it's pretty straight. They were really comfortable and I think I'm going to try another pair.

My 'planned' weekend sewing plans have fallen through - my SIL has exams for 3 days next week and will spend her weekend studying instead of sewing. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Definitely something, but exactly what, we'll see on Sunday.

PR Wardrobe - Assembly Line Sewing

I was hoping to get much more done this weekend but life intervened and, well, sewing took a backseat after Saturday noon.

I started a pair of pants for my wardrobe - BWOF 04-2009-119.



Once the fabric was traced & cut, I measured what was left (just under 1m). Rather than fold up that bit and deal with it later, I decided to use it all up by cutting out my 'almost' TNT skirt M3341.

Question - How many time do you make something before it's a TNT ?

This pattern has been tweaked each time (4 so far) I've made it. This could be the first time to just cut & sew it. If all goes smoothly and it fits, I'll call it TNT.


At the end of Friday - both pants and skirt were cut out. Interfacings were fused to facings.

End of day Saturday -
More ravelly fabric - all pieces serged
Interfaced pants fly extensions
Inserted zipper in pants - using SB video

I think it turned out pretty well - the fabric is black, but with this grey, you can see the checked texture in the fabric


And the underlap (this particular piece of cotton got a lot of mileage - I also used it for the facings of the skirt as well as the skirt finished last week - not bad for a buck !)



End of day Sunday -
Insert zipper in skirt
Lay out and cut lining pieces, skirt will definitely be lined (decision - to line pants or not...)

Sunday - no sewing done. I was hoping to have the skirt done, or almost done.
Instead, my BFF came over and spent most of the day. I put her to work helping with part of her Christmas present - yes, more cookies ! LOL

on the right - Almond Balls - on the left - Christmas tree spritz (when he didn't see any of these in the spritz last week DH informed me 'we MUST have Christmas Trees' - so - we have Christmas trees ! :-)


I'll probably not get much chance to sew or post this coming week (although I WILL try) - my MIL passed away last week and the funeral is Wednesday. We just found out that we are having DBIL and 2 of his adult kids staying with us from Monday to Thursday. We're the only ones with enough space. I'm looking forward to having them but that meant that instead of puttering around in the sewing room, we did laundry & cleaned & stripped beds & did laundry & & & &....

I would love to have a house fit for company without a major cleaning but that would take much more effort than I put into it LOL !

Have a great week everybody :-)

BWOF 04-2009-119 - A Muslin

Let me start by saying - NEVER, EVER, EVER in a million years would I ever have expected to ask my husband to take picture of my butt and THEN - POST THEM ONLINE !


My pants for the PR Wardrobe required a muslin. I haven't made pants in about 15 years and those were before I knew anything about fitting !

My muslin fabric was at the end (that's the explanation for the short front legs LOL) so this is one pattern tweaked a couple of times rather than cutting a new full pair of pants each time.

I started with a straight 42, no changes.
The front seems fine. My left side has a long vertical wrinkle that I didn't notice right away. The back - I need a swayback adj & there are those darn wrinkles under the butt ! Side seams and grainlines (very light pink chalk line, sorry) are straight.


I logged on to PR and spent quite some time searching and reading up on pants fitting - Woo Boy ! If you ever think you're the only one with a certain problem, just check PR - we have lots of company. It took a while, but I figure at least some of these wrinkles tell me I've got a flat butt.

In the first pic below, I made a 1/2" swayback adj and sewed the back crotch 1/4" deeper. The next 2 pics show what happens if I pull up the back and if I bend forward a bit. According to the forums, that means I should need either Debbie Cook's Fish Eye Dart or Ann Rowley's Flat Butt Adjusment.


Test #2 - Hoping this would allow some of those outside wrinkles fall, I let out each outside seam 1/2" at the waist tapering to nothing about 9" down. On the back left leg, I opened up the inseam a bit and basted out a 1/2" wedge tapering to 0" at the side seam. It helped some, but there is still wrinkling and there is alot of fabric at the top of the inseam. Back to the boards and the fitting books.


Test #3 - Maybe a size smaller at the back inseam would help. I opened out the crotch seam and each inseam down about 30cm. I folded out the 1/2" wedge across the right back leg to match the left leg. I took in 5/8" of each back inseam tapering out to the original side seam a bit before the 30cm mark.
Hmm, looking straight at the back, they look better. The side views, though, still show the fabric bunching just under the butt.


Now, not all the wrinkles are gone, but they feel like they fit well and would be wearable. I have no more muslin to try again. So, I'm going to cross my fingers and cut my fabric.


Parting Shot

This was my morning activity - one more type of cookie in the freezer.
Is it just me or does this NOT look like 28 dozen cookies ?!
Those stacks are all 4-high and thats what I counted but boy, they don't take up alot of space, do they ?

Spritz Cookies